IBM launches new software and consulting services

IBM introduced new software and services to help organizations use Big Data and Analytics to address the $3.5 trillion lost each year to fraud and financial crimes. Through sophisticated business expertise and analytics, organizations can take a holistic approach to address the financial losses caused by fraud while protecting the value of their brands.

As part of today’s news, IBM launched its “Smarter counter fraud” initiative, drawing on the expertise and innovation from more than 500 fraud consulting experts, 290 fraud-related research patents and $24 billion invested in IBM’s Big Data and Analytics software and services capabilities since 2005.

The initiative extends IBM’s leadership in Big Data and Analytics and Cloud to help public and private organizations prevent, identify and investigate fraudulent activities.

Today’s announcement comes at a time when a new generation of criminals are using digital channels – such as mobile devices, social networks and cloud platforms – to probe for weaknesses and vulnerabilities. The pace of this threat continues to accelerate – identity fraud impacted more than 12 million individuals in 2012, resulting in theft of nearly $21 billion, and each day the U.S. healthcare industry loses $650 million due to fraudulent claims and payments.

To address these complexities, IBM is delivering new software that allows organizations to gain better visibility and take a more proactive, holistic approach to countering fraud. This includes the ability to aggregate Big Data across a variety of internal and external sources – including mobile, social and online – and apply sophisticated analytics that continuously monitor for fraudulent indicators.

The new offerings feature advanced analytics that understand non-obvious relationships and co-occurrences between entities, new enhanced visualization technologies that can identify and connect fraudulent patterns closer to point of operation, and machine learning to help prevent future occurrence based on previous attacks and behaviors.

Leading analysts estimate that market demand for fraud and risk solutions is quickly accelerating. According to Gartner, 25 percent of large global companies will have adopted big data analytics for at least one security or fraud detection use case, up from eight percent today, and will achieve a positive return on investment within the first six months of implementation by 2016. IDC estimates that the market for Financial Crime solutions alone will be nearly $4.7 billion in 2014, with a 5.5 percent CAGR over the 2014-2017 forecast period.

IBM is unique in its ability to combine market-leading software, services and research capabilities to address the full spectrum of fraud and financial crimes – from tax evasion, money laundering and cyber-attacks to threats from inside the organization. For example, the new offerings can detect cross-channel mobile fraud and prevent cybercrime enablers like phishing scams.

They can enable an insurance company to review thousands of claims in real-time to flag potentially fraudulent activity while processing legitimate claims faster, or help a global bank more accurately detect and investigate money laundering activities to meet regulatory compliance.

Counter Fraud Management Software: A single offering that brings together IBM’s Big Data and Analytics capabilities to help organizations aggregate data from external and internal sources and apply sophisticated analytics to prevent, identify and investigate suspicious activity. It includes analytics that understand non-obvious relationships between entities, visualization technology that identifies larger patterns of fraud, and machine learning to help prevent future occurrence based on previous attacks.

Fraud discovery assets: A portfolio of customizable, research-developed assets that use analytics to discover fraud, waste, abuse and errors in data intensive industries and functions. These assets analyze an organization’s internal data to measure behavior, and then compare the results within specific peer groups to identify anomalies that indicate suspicious activity. Based on the results, an investigation recommendation is made.

Counter fraud as a service: IBM will offer four levels of counter fraud capabilities as a service – including Hosting, Application Management, Behavior Modeling & Scoring and Analytics & Referral Generation – that use a subscription-based model to give clients flexible choices that match their business needs and technical requirements. IBM’s Counter Fraud Center of Competency gives clients global access to expertise including fraud industry experts, advanced analytic capabilities and technical implementation services.